


Flying Dutchman

by dracox_serdriel



Series: Her Dark Works [5]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Burial at Sea, Depression, Dream Sex, Explicit Language, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Heartbreak, Loss, Romance, Smut, The Enchanted Forest, The Jolly Roger, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-26
Updated: 2015-11-27
Packaged: 2018-05-03 12:59:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5291771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dracox_serdriel/pseuds/dracox_serdriel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emma disappears in the aftermath of their vengeance on the Dark One, so Hook searches for her. Can a widely renown rapscallion pirate really aid the Savior of the Realm?</p><p><strong>Her Dark Works</strong> takes place in an alternate universe where Emma Swan was born and raised in the Enchanted Forest. One day, things go horribly wrong, and she abandons her birthright and throne to seek revenge on the Dark One. What happens when a woman born to be the Savior of the Realm joins forces with the Vengeful Pirate of Neverland?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Plain Sailing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hook buries his crew and deals with the fallout of recent events.

Hook held the dagger in his hand, its cold metal the only thing in the world to him beyond the emblazoned name of Emma Swan.

She told him that whoever killed the Dark One became the Dark One. The whole point of the blasted hat was to strip the Crocodile's powers before killing him, so neither would be forced to become the thing they hated.

_Why didn't it take me?_

The thought occurred to him when the initial shock wore off. He had killed Rumpel, the man behind the Crocodile, which meant that the price of his blood was on Hook's hands, not hers.

_She forced me to drop the dagger only to pick it up herself._

She realized it before he did. She could've let things run their course, diving out of the way so that the darkness overtook him. Instead, she didn't just save him, she sacrificed herself for him.

_She shouldn't have done that. It should've been me._

Hook considered summoning her with the dagger, but his knowledge on the subject was limited. It was only weeks ago that he learned that killing the Crocodile would damn him to be the next Dark One. What else didn't he know?

What if Emma's name on the blade was a trick? What if her magic somehow prevented the transformation until someone commanded her as the Dark One? She'd never forgive him for condemning her, even if his actions were done in ignorance.

He decided not to use the dagger and never to speak of it. He gathered the box and hat and took them all to his quarters. Emma had a compartment hidden in one of the books that was cloaked from magical detection and was somehow larger on the inside, fitting almost anything between the covers of _Seafaring Histories_. He stashed everything in there, then hide the book inside one of his own secret drawers.

He didn't have the luxury of falling apart. He had a bloody Crocodile that needed to be disposed of, a deck that needed cleaning, and three dozen good people to bury at sea.

But most of all, he needed to find Emma Swan.

* * *

Hook tossed the body of Rumpel overboard as unceremoniously as he had done Blackbeard's. Neither of them deserved a second more of his sweat, blood, or thought.

Then he turned to his crew. He wouldn't bury them here, where their murderers' corpses were left to be fed on by all manner of sea creatures. He set course for the waters of the Maritime Kingdom, for they had a special area for the burial of sailors - and yes, even pirates - who died honorable deaths. His crew qualified in spades.

The Jolly Roger was carved from enchanted bark, so once her captain set a course, she could sail without need of hands at the helm or eyes in the crow's nest, regardless of distance. Thus, she sailed for four days and nights.

Hook spent most of the first day carrying the crew members up from below deck. It took him two more to properly wrap and prepare the bodies, and he did so for each and every man and woman. Even when the stench of death urged him to simply wrap the last of them, he plodded on until the deck of his ship was covered in nothing but bodies prepared for their final rest.

His thoughts were constantly interrupted by memories of Emma. She had been in his life mere weeks, yet he felt her loss more deeply than he did for Hawking, who he had known for decades. And when these thoughts of her invaded his mind, it was never the moments of intense, overwhelming passion but the quiet moments. Waking before her and watching her sleep. Wrapping himself around her in bed, holding her close to him. Her laugh ringing in his ears. Her smile. And sometimes, when he was exhausted, all he would do was imagine her face, beautiful and melancholy, with her eyes warming at the sight of him.

At night, he barely slept, for his dreams were filled with Emma: lips, teeth, tongue, fingers... he'd wake with a pain in his chest.

_It may be that my dreams are the only place I will ever see her again._

Every morning, this was his first thought, and every morning, he dismissed it.

When he arrived at the burial site, he was sore and tired from the backbreaking work, but he pressed on, saying the words of departure as he dropped one after the other over the edge of his ship. It took him from dawn until dusk.

Just as every other night, he dreamed of Emma Swan. 

The next morning, a small ship approached, demanding that all those aboard attend an audience with the Maritime King and Queen.

_What on earth will I tell them?_

He could've run, but he had already spent five days at sea with no news. His best chance at finding Emma was to go to the King and Queen.

* * *

Hook wasn't restrained, but his cutlass was taken before he was escorted to royal court. Normally when royalty demanded the crew of a pirate ship, it was to arrest them, but he was welcomed. Not quite as a guest, but definitely not as a prisoner.

"King Eric, Queen Ariel, I present to you, Captain Hook," the herald said.

Hook bowed, as was custom, and the King and Queen didn't hide their surprise.

"Are you not the pirate known as Captain Hook?" Eric asked. "You have no kingdom and serve no realm, so why bow to us?"

"Custom, common courtesy," Hook replied. "I don't seem to be under arrest, and, if at all possible, I intend to keep it that way."

"You buried over thirty men," Ariel said. "At the site where we lay our heroes at sea to rest."

"Explain yourself," Eric said. "Where is the rest of your crew?"

"Those that I released to the sea, thirty-six in total, were what was left of my crew," Hook replied. "The pirate Blackbeard murdered them with the help of the Dark One. My crew died slaying those monsters."

"You killed the Dark One?" Eric asked.

"Indeed," Hook replied. "But some part of him attacked the only other survivor aboard my ship and took her away. I have come here today, at your invitation, to ask for your help in locating her."

"You believe she lives?" Ariel asked. 

"I hope it," Hook said, his voice cracking.

The King and Queen were greatly unsettled, though they did their best to hide it.

"If it is true that you helped defeat the Dark One, then we will assist you in any way we can," Eric said. "What was the name of the other survivor? This woman you are looking for?"

"Emma Swan."

* * *

Hook was given a small bedroom outside the royal court. He noticed that the window was too small for egress and that the door bolted from both sides, but they didn't arrest him.

In the Maritime Kingdom, simply being aboard a known pirate vessel was cause alone for arrest, but after he uttered the name of Emma Swan, it was as if a magic spell descended over the royal court. The King demanded the entire story. The Queen wanted to know how Emma Swan, daughter of Snow White and Charming, joined forces with a pirate.

He spun them a tale of half-truths, doing his best to keep Emma's secrets, especially those about her son. He told the court that, as Savior of the Realm, she decided to stop the Dark One for all his ill deeds. She sought Hook out and proposed a partnership. The court didn't seem to find her actions out of character or suspicious.

Everyone wanted to help her. And just like that, all consideration for who Hook was - a pirate - disappeared. He was now the pirate who aided the savior, which was hardly a pirate at all.

He sprawled out on the luxuriously over-sized bed, turning his head to see if Emma was there.

She wasn't. Of course she wasn't. He closed his eyes.

 

He walked under the shadow of the Dark Castle, a place that he had only seen twice. Somehow, he was inside, and though he'd never been within its walls, he knew that's where he was. A figure stood, looking out the window, facing away. He didn't need a closer look to know that it was Emma. He ran to her, put his hand on her shoulder, and turned her around.

She was sad, beautiful, and very alive.

Then he felt something tug at him. He was in a bedroom now, restrained on a four-poster bed by an invisible force. He struggled against it, but there was nothing he could do.

Then he was stark naked. He tried calling out, but he couldn't speak, either.

Emma was on top of him, glorious and naked. Her thighs wrapped around his, and he could feel how wet she was for him. Her touch had an immediate effect on him, his member hardening in the blink of an eye, his entire body on fire with want, and his lips quivering, desperate to whimper or to beg for her.

There was no kissing or speaking, and the only touch she allowed him beyond her wetness over his erection was her hand pressed into his throat, keeping him in position as she slid her warm heat over his cock, eliciting mewling moans from them both.

He started thrusting up into her, and she quickly escalated, setting a punishing pace that he could barely keep up with. He wanted to grab her hips, touch her breasts, plant his feet on the bed and change the angle, but he couldn't move anything other than his hips.

His eyes met hers, and suddenly he knew that this was all her. Her eyes bore into his, possessive and passionate, as she rode him as hard as possible. She was above him, her entire body out of reach, and the thought of her having total control over him had an unexpected effect, arousing him even more and pushing him to the edge of his climax.

_"Not yet."_

Emma hadn't so much spoken the words as projected them into his mind. She clutched his neck with one hand, while her other drifted to there thrashing centers, rubbing her clit the way he wanted to. His body begged for release, teetering on the edge of his orgasm, and his groan elicited a wicked smile from her as she rubbed even harder.

She came, hard and fast, clenching around him.

_"Come for me..."_

His release erupted at her command, and his moans became an inhuman sound of ecstasy as she rode him through their climaxes, dominating him completely.

 

Hook's eyes snapped open suddenly, and confusion held him. His dreams before had all been memories, but they had never done that before. He left his bed, determined to check the room for any signs of Emma, desperately hoping she snuck inside to have that little tryst with him.

He was alone, and he had been alone all night. It was only a dream, and he had known that from the moment he woke. At the very least, the lack of sweat gave it away. 

Defeated, Hook returned to his bed, and he drifted into a fitful sleep.


	2. Anchor Watch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With aid from the Maritime Kingdom, Hook rides to the Dark Castle to find Emma.

Hook didn't discover the reason for the Maritime Kingdom's kindness toward him until the next morning, when he was allowed to return to his ship. Looking over the port side, he saw the head of Ariel pop out of the water, and she scurried up the side in an oddly elegant way.

She was a bloody mermaid.

His instinctual response was to draw his cutlass and flee, but once she reached the deck, Ariel suddenly had legs again. Was he seeing things?

"I wasn't sure if Emma told you about me," Ariel said. "My name is Ariel. A long time ago, Emma's mother helped me find my true love, Eric."

"Emma did speak of you, but she didn't name you."

"Do you truly wish to help her?"

"Aye, that I do."

"Do you love her?"

He didn't reply to that. He couldn't. If she was alive, she was cursed, and it was quite possible that she was no longer the same woman.

"I... don't know," he replied after several moments of awkward silence. "But I owe her my life, twice over. She was taken away, possibly being held captive by some servant of the Dark One. At the very least, I owe it to her to find out."

She gave him an odd look that he couldn't place.

"I saw you laying your crew to rest," she said. "I was swimming and saw the bodies. Plural. Usually it's just one. That's why I asked Eric to summon you. There are rumors of a sea serpent that cannot be slain - "

"It's dead," Hook interrupted. "It was enchanted so nothing could penetrate its skin, but Emma cut off its head."

Ariel smiled. "Sounds like her all right. Tell me, Captain Hook, how do you plan on finding Emma?"

"I need to travel to the Dark Castle, where the Dark One used to live. If some fiend of his captured her, that's where they'd take her," he replied. "But now that I have no crew, there is no one for anchor watch, and leaving my ship without protection will guarantee her theft."

"I can protect your ship while you are away. Few sailors would dare challenge the Queen, let alone a mermaid," she said. "Once you're ready to depart, come back to the palace, and we will give you whatever you need to travel. All I ask is that you tell me what happened to the daughter of my oldest friend."

"Aye, love, you have my word."

* * *

Hook had almost forgotten what it was like to have people rally behind him. For centuries, his crew obeyed him. Some even loved him, but that was nothing compared to the support the Maritime Kingdom provided in the name of Emma Swan. 

King Eric offered an army, but Hook refused as politely as possible. He needed to know what happened to Emma before he asked for any other help. In the end, the Maritime King provided him with a month's rations, a splendid horse, a letter with the Seal of the King, and maps leading him to the Dark Castle. He was surprised that the King gave him written proof of his support, but many assured him it would be vital to crossing certain bridges and roads.

He thanked Queen Ariel and King Eric for their kindness and left that same day, not wanting to delay any longer.

He spent his days riding, no matter how sore he became, and his nights were engulfed by dreams of Emma. Sometimes she would just lie next to him, naked, with a sad look in her eyes. Sometime she'd hold him or kiss him, but it never was as intense as that first night when he dreamed a non-memory. He'd wake up and search for her, even though he knew better. 

It was a two week's ride to the Dark Castle, and as he neared it, people began to whisper about new dangers. Weeks ago, a great force blocked the lands of the Dark Castle, and none could pass through it.

Hook continued his journey. Even if it was true, it was his only choice at the moment. Perhaps this force would be gone when he got there.

After thirteen days of hard riding, he saw the Dark Castle in the distance, along with the great, wide line that encircled it with a protective bubble. The rumors were true.

He'd never reach it before nightfall, but he resolved himself to arrive that very night. It had been nearly twenty days since he'd last seen Emma, and if there was even a sliver of hope that he'd see her again tonight, he had to try.

The stallion protested the extra riding past dusk, and his steed's gallop became wild and erratic. Hook couldn't get him to slow or stop. He was so focused on calming the horse that he forgot all about the barrier. 

At least, he forgot about it until he and his horse were thrown back with tremendous force. Then everything went black.


	3. The Offing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hook pledges to serve Emma Swan. But can he save her?

Hook's head ached, and the first thing he thought of was the stallion from King Eric. That poor creature might well be dead because of his foolish desperation.

He opened his eyes and saw that he was in a bedroom, and though his head hurt, he otherwise felt fine. But that didn't make any sense. For nearly three weeks, Hook had been tired and sore from working and riding with no rest.

_You were never sore with Emma, and she gave you plenty of reasons to be._

He smiled at the thought, but he quickly realized it was quite true. Those consecutive nights he spent with Emma would've left even his well-trained body aching the next day, but he never was. And she never seemed to be, either. Perhaps her magic had something to do with it.

That meant that Emma must be somewhere nearby. He left the bed immediately. Hook looked out the window to get his bearings, and his stomach dropped. He was inside the Dark Castle.

He walked through the corridors with haste, searching for any sign of Emma Swan.

* * *

He wandered that castle for hours, but there was no sign of anyone else. As dawn broke through the castle windows, he finally saw the figure of someone in the great hall.

"Emma?" he said. 

She turned to him, and it was striking how different she appeared. Her features were sharper, her hair more white than blond, and she seemed so empty. Yet, she had no gilded skin or scales. She wore the simplest clothing he'd ever seen on her: tunic and trousers made of natural fibers. Her tunic had a hood that came over her head, and everything she wore was a gray-brown color, as if none of it were dyed. As his mind catalogued all this facts, only one thought was in his head.

_She's alive!_

He ran to her and pulled her into a kiss, and she returned in kind before shoving him away.

"I can't," she said.

"You're alive, love," he said. "I thought something had taken you."

"I'm the Dark One, Hook," she replied. "You shouldn't be here. Why did you come?"

"I told you Emma, I am at your service. Anything you will ask of me, I shall do."

Her eyes lit up, and she asked, "Do you have my dagger? The one with my name on it?"

"Whatever for?"

"You kill the Dark One, you become the Dark One," she replied. "But if the Dark One kills herself, then there will be nowhere for the darkness to go. It will just stop."

"We thought that last time, Swan, and that black goo took you up into the sky," he said. Then he lied, "The dagger fell far off. No doubt it is at bottom of the ocean."

"We must find it," she said. "So I can kill myself and this would be over. The Dark One will be gone forever."

"If that is what you wish, Swan, than I will act in your service," he said. "The Jolly Roger can take us wherever we need to go."

"No, I can't - you should leave."

He knelt before her and said, "Please, Emma, I am ever in your service."

"Do you have any idea what I would do to you?" she asked, suddenly uncomfortably close to him. "I would use you and your body to fulfill my darkest desires."

"And I will enjoy satisfying those desires," he replied. "Emma Swan, I'm yours. Whether you're the Savior of the Realm or the Dark One or simply Emma. I am yours."

She looked at him possessively and said, "Very well."

"I can take you to the Jolly Roger, and we can - "

"No," she interrupted. "We're staying here."

* * *

Hook followed her through the winding corridors, vainly attempting to memorize his way to... wherever it was they were going. She came to a door that looked like every other in this blasted castle. 

"This is our room," she said. 

He opened it for her, and she gave him a weak smile for his gentlemanly behavior. 

The room itself was quite plain. It had a four-poster bed, but beyond that, there were only two wardrobes and one storage chest at the foot of the bed.

_You just pledged your services to the Dark One._

He should've hated himself for his stupidity.

_No, I pledged my services to Emma Swan._

Before he had much time to think about it, Emma was upon him, dragging him into a kiss with a harsh embrace. It took him a moment to react his hook yanking her hood back as his fist grabbed her hair.

Emma was brutal. She did him the favor of removing his clothes without shredding them, but she peppered his body with nips and bits and nail marks, leaving cuts, scraps, and bruises in her wake. 

Hook didn't mind. The foreplay was desperate, needy, as if they'd gone years without seeing one another, and however rough she was being, she had the power to do far worse.

She sat on the edge of the bed as he thrust into her, and her eyes bored into his, as if reading his mind. When they finally collapsed together in a spent heap, she dragged him up into bed and put her finger to his lips.

"Hush," she said. "Sleep."

He had been tired, but not remotely sleepy, yet he fell into the deepest of slumbers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fear not! Her Dark Works continues with Episode #6 "[By the Board](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5302907/chapters/12242525)"!


End file.
